Worker Struggles, the Labour Process and the Question of Control: The Case of United Garment Industry Limited

Appendices includedCBR Working Paper NO. 16List of CBR Working Papers includedThe immediate objective of this paper is to derive educational material for workers, based on the analysis of dynamics within United Garments industry Limited UGIL, a Kampala based textile factory, and subsequently within the union for textile workers, Uganda Textile and Garment workers' Union, (UT&GWU). UGIL was established during the import industrialization phase in the immediate post-independence era for making garments from imported cloth particularly from Japan. The company was incorporated in 1964 as a joint venture between UDC, two Japanese Companies Yamato International and Marubeni, and United Commercial agencies. The Uganda government had the majority shares-51%, and the Japanese Companies, 49% (UDC Corporate Plan 1988-90) hence the management has been by Ugandans only with the representative of the Japanese Companies as a production manager. UGIL was not a factory as such, because all it did was to import cloth cut it to make several types of garments such as shirts, school uniforms, trousers etc. Originally in fact it was called a 'Shirt Firm'. This probably explains why it is rarely included in publications on the textile industry particularly of the sixties and seventies. Later in 1972, knitting of (imported) yarn was introduced. Recently, spinning was introduced (installed in April1990) and almost all the yarn required is spun here from Uganda cotton. UGIL had a rather modest start with a total of 120 workers but gradually, activity increased and the labour force went up to about 1,000 in the early 1980's. None the less with the influence of wars and subsequent lay- offs the labour force has gone down to 450. The main issue in this analysis is to discern the role of workers in the creation of their own history, a history in which workers help to define change rather than merely respond to it. It is an account of what they have done and failed to do within the context of the Ugandan society. The knitting thread in this contention, is to show what labour has achieved as a result of coming together thereby establishing the rationale behind organization. The paper is divided into the following sections: First, is the background to the workers' struggle in Uganda as a whole and particularly with a note on the education they have been exposed to. The second deals with the perspective and the conceptual issues that guided the research. The third gives an account of the production process and production trends and the socio-cultural characteristics of the labour force in UGIL. Fourth is the worker struggle, a reconstruction of their history. The fifth addresses the constraints to worker power with a critical look at the nature of capital and the role of the state. The final section is the conclusion to the study